BEST WAYS TO IMPRESS YOUR VALENTINEIt’s Valentine’s Day, one of the few days of the year (along with Christmas and her birthday) where you make a little bit more of an effort than usual to show your sweetie just how much you care.

BEST PLACE$ TO FIND $OME GREAT BARGAIN$Here at the QUEENS LEDGER/BROOKLYN STAR, we figured it was our civic duty to point out a couple of establishments worthy of showcasing during these difficult times.

Breaking News

Ukraine's central bank moved to shore up the country's battered currency Tuesday by hiking interest rates to 30 percent as the government pushed through draconian reforms needed to clinch another IMF bailout. The bank said the eye-popping jump in the benchmark refinancing rate, from a current 19.5 percent, was aimed at "stabilising the macro-economic situation" pending the IMF's decision on a $17.5-billion loan needed to save Ukraine from bankruptcy. Ukraine's currency and economy have tanked over the past year as government forces fight a bloody war with pro-Russian separatists in the east. London-based Capital Economics research company called the interest rate increase a "last-ditch attempt to regain control of the currency".

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a speech that stirred political controversy in two countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress on Tuesday that negotiations underway between Iran and the United States would "all but guarantee" that Tehran gets nuclear weapons to the detriment of the entire world.

CHESTER, Ill. (AP) — Drew Peterson, a former suburban Chicago police officer convicted of killing his third wife and suspected in his fourth wife's disappearance, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to trying to hire someone to kill the prosecutor who helped put him in prison.